


Time Off

by RayneSummer



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Caring Gwen (Merlin), Gen, Parent Gaius (Merlin), Sick Merlin (Merlin), as he should, he is mentioned tho bc he at least lets merlin off while ill, no arthur bc he is mean, the most basic simple sickfic you ever will see
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29757879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayneSummer/pseuds/RayneSummer
Summary: Merlin, with all his luck, comes down with Camelot's latest illness. Lucky he lives with the court physician and has a good friend..aka the most basic classic sickfic you ever will see
Relationships: Gaius & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Time Off

**Author's Note:**

> I return with the most basic classic sickfic ever that took me 2 months to write the first quarter of on my phone and then 2 hours to painfully slowly write the rest on my laptop with the most 90s style non working internet this morning so I couldn’t look up medieval herbs properly

Merlin snuggled under the blankets, thinking how it was nice to get a day off to stay in bed. Even if it did come with a nasty bug that kept him shivering and boiling, and a deep cough that made him nauseous and his chest – actually, his whole body – hurt and ache.

A mostly mild virus of some sort had lightly settled on some of Camelot’s citizens, and somehow Merlin had come down with it the day before; a fact that was slightly surprisingly quickly noticed by Arthur, who sent him home complaining that the prince could not fall sick from his manservant.

Gaius had taken one look at him sniffing as he stepped into their chambers and immediately sent him to his room, following after a moment with a few disgusting tasting remedies that the physician sternly pressed on the boy before laying another blanket on top of the bed and insisting he sleep.

Merlin tried to rest, but the cough developed through the night, becoming chesty and resentful. Which led to him curled up under the covers this morning wondering if time off was worth this stubborn illness. His body suggested not when he started coughing again, the force squeezing his eyes shut and causing him to miss the door to his little room opening.

As the fit petered off, he heard Gaius tutting somewhere above him, and poked his head further out of the covers to squint against the light that managed to filter in through the shutter. He was accosted by a hand on his forehead, but it was removed before he could do more than sniff indignantly and he was left peering up at his mentor, who was at least looking a little sympathetic.

“And how are you feeling this morning?” Gaius asked mildly, but his face was kind.

Merlin tried to scowl, but it made his head hurt, so he settled for grumbling inaudibly as he tried to gather the covers back around him from where they’d shifted during the coughing.

Gaius just nodded as though he had replied, and started sorting through several vials he had clearly placed by the bed at some point during the night, Or morning, if it was still so.

“I imagine you feel quite awful, but thankfully most of these cases have been little more than a few days’ discomfort and symptoms.” He paused, glancing at Merlin when the warlock sneezed violently a couple of times and shivered in response afterwards. “Though your fever is a little higher than I’d like at this stage,” Gaius continued, selecting a vial and stepping to sit on the edge of the bed as Merlin sniffed and squinted at him.

Admittedly, the boy was looking quite pitiful. He was clearly miserable, trembling every so often, and sweat matted his forehead with strands of hair that had stuck to the skin during his restless night.

“Merlin, can you sit up?” Gaius asked softly, and waited with patience as Merlin sighed, coughed, and struggled to a sitting position while Gaius briefly took a shoulder to help his balance. Gaius offered his ward the vial and again waited until Merlin sluggishly unentangled a hand from under the blankets and took the object in shaky fingers, bringing it to his face where he immediately made a face at the smell.

Unimpressed, Gaius looked at him sternly and Merlin wrinkled his nose and tipped the vial’s contents into his mouth, making a face as he held it out for Gaius to take back and trying to hide his head under the covers in vain hope he wouldn’t be given any more horrible medicines.

Above him, Gaius just sighed fondly as he put the empty vial on the table and picked up the next thing. “Well, that should keep your fever down a bit and help with the cough,” he said aloud for the benefit of his grumpy patient. “Here.” He tapped the visible top of Merlin’s head with his free hand and waited.

Merlin peeked his eyes above the cover warily and relaxed when he saw the metal cup of water held out for him. Carefully, he snaked a hand out of the blanket again and took the offered liquid, sipping it in relief as Gaius tinkered with the bottles next to the bed.

More than halfway through the cup, his throat finally felt soothed enough to work, and he coughed a couple of times before he managed to croak out a rusty, “Thank you.”

Unfortunately trying to speak just triggered another coughing fit, and Merlin desperately tried to make sure the water wouldn’t spill as he leant forward in pain. Over the chesty sounds, he felt more than heard Gaius take the cup before it fell and a hand on his back, rubbing a practised rhythm up and down his spine.

“Alright, calm down,” Gaius spoke quietly as the coughing wore off. Merlin twisted around to give his mentor a look as he tried to pull the blankets over him and snuggle back down simultaneously – it’s not like he was choosing to cough his lungs up! “Don’t talk,” Gaius sternly reminded in reply to the grumpy expression.

Grumbling under his breath, Merlin continued to tangle the covers unsuccessfully around himself, eventually ending up lying back and panting from the effort. Gaius promptly rearranged the blankets and tucked them comfortably over him before resting a hand on his forehead for a moment.

“Stay here and try to rest,” he said quietly, straightening up to regard his ward as Merlin blinked up at him drowsily. “Arthur’s given you the day off.”

Merlin rolled his eyes slightly but stopped because it made his head hurt, hoping he could convey the sarcastic thought, _oh, how nice of him!_

Gaius just shook his head fondly and collected a few vials before turning to leave. “I’ll be in the other room. Let me know if you need anything.” Then, apparently remembering that he had just told the boy not to talk, amended in a warning tone, “I’ll be checking that you don’t move from that bed.”

He watched Merlin fight against tiredness for a moment then left the room, satisfied he had hidden worry under physician commands.

For his part, Merlin really did try to sleep. The medicine and water he had taken sat unhappily in his otherwise empty stomach, but he wasn’t hungry. Meagre light filtering in past the shutter hurt his eyes when they were open, but his aching brain and belly vied for attention when he closed his eyes for the dark.

He could hear the vague sounds of Gaius working in the other room, which created a nice ambience, and he tried to listen to the comforting familiar noises of vials clinking, tinctures being made, the grinding of herbs.

It was strange that this felt like home more than being in the little village of Ealdor every did. Not that he didn’t miss his mother, some days a lot, others less so, or that the hustle and bustle of city life had messed with him for a while, not to mention the winding corridors of the huge castle that he frequently got lost in. All those things were true, but nonetheless there was a sense of place and belonging that he hadn’t often felt.

Which was strange, Merlin considered with a humourless huff that almost caused another coughing fit, because it wasn’t as if Camelot was any safer than anywhere else – quite the opposite, in fact, given that almost everyone here would have him executed in a second if a speck of magic was seen.

But despite that, between friends and family he had found the castle setting homely, even if his job did entail getting a grown man dressed and emptying chamber pots.

His stomach lurched threateningly as he tried to turn on to his side for comfort, and this time the sensation didn’t ease, making the thought about chamber pots suddenly very important. Merlin did his best to breathe through the nausea, eyes finding the pot in the corner of his room and hoping he wouldn’t have to use it.

Laying quietly for a moment, the situation seemed to calm, and Merlin breathed a sigh of relief that immediately caught in his throat and he quickly lurched forward, falling out of bed and ignoring his screaming head in favour of crawling the few steps to the chamber pot and vomiting up what little he had in his body, ending with a coughing fit as he spat out the taste and began shivering from the loss of blankets.

“Merlin?”

Gaius’ worried call barely preceded him pushing open the door and stepping into the room, immediately hurrying over to the corner where Merlin had leant against the wall, teeth chattering and legs pulled up, looking and feeling very pitiful.

The physician crouched slightly and glanced at the chamber pot as he put a hand to the boy’s forehead, clicking his tongue like Merlin’s mother sometimes did when he was younger. Gaius looked at his shivering ward in concern for a moment, then turned to pull the blankets from the bed.

“Alright,” he started, standing and pulling Merlin gently with him and draping the blankets over his ward’s shaking shoulders. “Come on with you then.”

Carefully, Gaius led Merlin stumbling out the room and into the main chamber, where he pressed the boy down on the patient bed there and briefly took the blankets to shake them out and layer them over the ill warlock, tucking them in again and touching the back of his fingers to a fever-rosy cheek. Merlin closed his eyes at the reassuring contact.

“You stay here,” Gaius said quietly, fussing with the covers again to make sure they were pulled up over Merlin’s shoulders, lingering his touches on too-warm skin and trying to keep his worry at bay behind the appropriate court physician demeanour.

Merlin felt the presence beside him disappear, and cracked open an eye as Gaius returned with something in his hand that smelt nice. “Hush,” he lightly scolded at Merlin’s awareness. The warlock obediently closed his eye and sighed in satisfaction when a damp cloth was draped on his forehead. That was what smelt good.

“Lavender and Valerian root in the water,” Gaius said quietly as he sat on the edge of the bed, “To help you sleep.”

Merlin nodded ever so slightly to show he heard, but Gaius put a hand on the cloth against his forehead to stop him. “Hush,” he said again. “Rest.”

Despite the command, the bed didn’t creak to suggest someone leaving, and Merlin was lulled by the familiar presence and surroundings as the herb smells made their way into his mind. Slowly, he drifted.

It wasn’t a restful time though.

He fell in and out of consciousness, hearing the sounds of Gaius working, much closer now, and occasional quiet talking with the creak of a door. The sound of a chamber pot being cleaned and put carefully next to the bed, but the quiet clang still woke Merlin from a slumber and caused a coughing fit. Gaius shushed him and changed the cloth on his forehead when he settled down again, this time with colder water.

Dreams weren’t much better. It was all heat or cold, being abandoned or found, attacked or banished. They weren’t fully formed, and not enough to be considered nightmares, but left Merlin breathless and unsettled.

When his eyes opened to slits against the light in the room, Gaius tried to get him to drink water or sip medicine, but it always returned with a vengeance, burning his already sore throat. The herbs in the water soaked cloth were changed and fresh to try and provide some sort of relief through smell instead of ingesting, but it didn’t do enough for the fever or pain.

So Merlin found himself in a half-awake world, breathing heavily through chesty coughing fits and constantly twisting the blankets around himself to try and find comfort through burning heat.

It was during one of these lengthy drifting sessions that he heard a new voice, and his attention zeroed in on something else to note other than piercing pain and constant nauseous aches. Especially since he quickly recognised the voice as another calming presence and not a threat while he was so vulnerable.

“Needs someone to stay with him ideally, but I can’t ignore everyone else much longer.”

“Of course, I understand. I’ll be happy to sit with him a while.”

That voice was certainly familiar, but Merlin’s addled brain couldn’t decipher exactly who it was, despite wanting to know.

“He hadn’t been able to keep anything down, which means the fever is barely in control. I put herbs in the water for the cloth to help, but it’s not doing very much unfortunately.”

Gaius sounded worried beyond his clinical words, and Merlin frowned to himself. He didn’t want to cause trouble.

There was more talking, then someone walked towards the bed with a lighter step than usual as the door closed somewhere else. Merlin tried to open his eyes just a little bit as the person next to him sighed and placed a freshly watered cloth on his head, but the pain from light even beyond his eyelid kept him seemingly asleep.

“It’s no wonder you’ve caught this, working as hard as you do,” the person began, and immediately even Merlin’s pain riddled mind connected the voice to the footsteps and the previous overheard conversation, and he reflexively sighed in relief, content with the company.

Unfortunately Gwen took it as doing something wrong, as she often did.

“Oh, sorry, was that too loud?” She hastily dropped her voice to just above a whisper as she gently brushed fingers over a warm cheek to confirm her presence. “Gaius said you haven’t been able to take anything, so you’re probably in a lot of pain,” she said softly, sounding sad. “Sorry.”

Merlin wanted to reassure as he often did, but barely succeeded in opening one eye to a slit to see Gwen sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling the hard mattress move more than he could make out her form looking at him in concern.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to talk,” she soothed, correctly interpreting his inability to reply, and patted a hand underneath the blanket. “I can be quiet if you’d like?”

Determinedly, Merlin managed to squeeze his eyes shut and shake his head just slightly. Gwen caught the cloth before it could fall off and took it away to refresh it.

“That’s fine, I can carry on if you’re sure,” she continued cautiously as she put the wet cloth back on Merlin’s forehead, smiling at his little sigh of satisfaction. The smell of herbs once again filled the air, trying to work by just breathing them in. Gwen liked the scent as well, making the already homely feeling chambers even cosier.

With coolness seeping into his brain again, Merlin could feel the pain lessen just enough to relax and have sleep beckon as Gwen’s calm rambling filled the companiable quiet.

He drifted again, listening to stories of the visiting lords and ladies, about who got the least embarrassed at accidents during feasts of basic bodily functions – something that Merlin didn’t understand. He was a polite young man but supressing a burp or fart because of company wasn’t exactly something he had been brought up to learn.

Gwen had laughed when he had admitted this to her soon after arriving, and she chuckled quietly now as well as she recounted that short conversation.

She changed his cloth a few times and tried to coax him to drink something, and he felt so relaxed and detached that he tried to take a few sips from the cup his friend held out, trying not to choke on it from his position and cause Gwen more undue worry.

Between the stories and the liquid finally beginning to settle, proper rest began to beckon, and muzzily Merlin realised there must have been something else in the water, but he didn’t mind as finally his consciousness let go and he properly fell asleep for the first time.

Some time later, talking filtered back into his awareness, rousing Merlin just slightly with their quiet tones.

“He managed some of the water and seemed to really relax,” Gwen almost whispered, sounding pleased, “and it hasn’t come back up yet!”

Gaius chuckled very softly. “That’s good,” he replied, relief clear. “It had a touch of willow tea to lower fever and help with the pain.”

There was a shift in presence and an old hand gently pressed against his bare forehead, then the back of fingers grazed a cheek. “It’s definitely come down a little bit,” Gaius said, sounding slightly calmer than he had all day. Not that he ever panicked, but the tiny edge of fear in his voice had eased.

It was only so much even an old court physician could hide worry for his own when ill.

The voices murmured a little more and moved away into the room, letting Merlin slip off into restful sleep again, this time for good. And when he woke in the morning, weak but better, and found Gaius sitting slumped at the desk nearby the bed, fast asleep, where he had clearly been watching over his ward throughout the night, Merlin could finally open his eyes fully despite the early dawn light and watch his mentor lightly snore for a moment, a smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> pls let me know if you too will never tire of this simple but brilliant sh*t


End file.
